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Writing Skills - Linguistic Specificity

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Slide Opening Graphic of this Speech Therapy - Social Skills website Lisa Flowers of Communication Acceleration Speech Language Therapy WRITING SKILLS WORKSHEETS Speech language pathologists know that language impaired children with lexical deficits will often use non-specific terms, such as “thing” and “stuff”. KEEP READING
Writing Skills:  Specific Vocabulary Lisa Flower

Writing Skills
Linguistic Specificity

Specific and descriptive writing is the expressive goal. Language impaired children frequently use non-specific words in their speech and in their writing. For example, one of the most common words my students use to express an emotion is “upset”. I challenge my students to replace that word with a more specific emotion, such as “disappointed”, “sullen”, “outraged”, or “frustrated”. This straightforward exercise requires students to replace underlined non-specific terms, such as “good” and “people”, with specific nouns and adjectives in sentences. This worksheet lends itself well to group sessions and the classroom, because within group contexts students can hear several variations of replacements, and can evaluate the effectiveness of each. An answer key with multiple possible replacements is included.

Related Products To Writing Skills Linguistic Specificity

Writing Skills Packet

A collection of all twelve writing skills products improving syntax, expanding lexicon, organizing essays, and enhancing overall written expression

Character Descriptions Writing Activity

This literary character analysis activity includes a scaffolding framework from which students learn to write comprehensive character descriptions

Clarity and Simplification Worksheet

Students are tasked with syntactically simplifying phrases and sentences while maintaining original meaning, requiring them to pay close attention to semantics

Descriptive Writing - Adjectives and Adverbs

This four-page worksheet is also found in Grammar section. Contains a wide variety of exercises teaching students to use adjectives and adverbs in their writing.

Linguistic Flexibility Worksheet

Students familiarize themselves with using a thesaurus as they find multiple synonyms for underlined words within sentences, improving their linguistic flexibility skills

Movie Reviews Outline

This movie review outline for a multi-paragraph essay that includes an introduction, plot summary, critique, and recommendations allows students to organize their analyses

Passive and Active Voice Worksheet

This worksheet teaches students how to distinguish between passive and active voice, and encourages them to write in the active voice, making them stronger writers

Perspective Consistency Activity

This activity works on the ability to keep a consistent perspective throughout an essay by requiring students to choose a perspective and stick with it throughout a given essay

Redundancy Worksheet

Students identify redundant components within sentences, and then choose which to omit and which to keep in order to maintain maximum meaning

Simplification and Elaboration

A student favorite! After simplifying comically obfuscated sentences, students enhance meaning by adding adjectives, adverbs, and other details following a roll of dice

Writing a Complaint Letter

This activity, also found in Social Skills, includes a letter sample, writing assignments, and therapeutic notes that target students’ ability to regard their potential readers when writing

Answering Homework Questions Handout

Teaches students how to evaluate meanings within sentences, encouraging them to elaborate on the meaning of their homework and test answers

writing skills worksheets high school

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